Monthly Archives: September 2012

One of the questions I am asked a lot on school visits is who is my favourite character. I always say this is a bit like asking a mum or dad who their favourite child is – there’s no real answer. All my characters are my favourites – at the time of writing, anyway. In […]

Don’t miss the chance to win a full set of my Girls FC books. They’re signed, too! The competition in the recent issue of She Kicks All you have to do is tell She Kicks magazine what the name of your fictional girls’ football team would be. Mine’s the Parrs, named after […]

Did I mention I had the honour of introducing Allan Ahlberg at the Joined-Up Reading Conference on Sunday? What? Only A MILLION TIMES? Well, what do you expect? To put how much that meant to me in to perspective, here is my list of children’s authors who have significantly affected my life: 1. Maxim Gorky […]

I’ve just spent five days in Dubrovnik, Croatia, with Mr P. I’ve never been to Croatia before but I would definitely go again. The climate is wonderfully warm and the long Dalmatian coastline makes it a perfect holiday destination. Dubrovnik itself is a beautiful old walled city and deserves its status as a World Heritage […]

I was in London earlier this week on a ‘training day’ for the National Literacy Trust’s Premier League Reading Stars Challenge. The purpose of the challenge is to motivate children to read for pleasure using football as the spur. Schools, libraries, youth groups etc from all over England can participate. They receive a pack […]

So sorry if you’ve been wondering where my blog has been. I was hacked. I’m nonplussed as to why anyone would want to hack a children’s writer’s blog but then I get nonplussed about many things. At the moment I’m nonplussed about why a country (Pakistan) might want to arrest and possibly pronounce a death […]